


What Does Not Kill You

by fanfic_nonnie



Category: Divergent Series - Veronica Roth
Genre: Aftermath, Canon Divergent, Chocolate Box Treat, F/M, Physical Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 02:17:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5850067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanfic_nonnie/pseuds/fanfic_nonnie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tobias stands outside and watches because that's what she asked him to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Does Not Kill You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stelladelnordxd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stelladelnordxd/gifts).



Tobias watched outside the window. It’s where Tris preferred him when she was struggling with each step between the parallel bars as an Erudite— _no, a Chicagoan_ —therapist talked her through it.

“You can’t do this for me,” she’d said quietly. She didn’t like his help into or out of the wheelchair, and she’d verbally flay him if he offered to carry her.

So he watched as she collapsed, drained and exhausted, into her wheelchair at the end of the session, waited for her to roll out using strong arms and hands on the wheels, and smiled back when she smiled at him in greeting.

“I’m getting stronger,” she said, pleased at her accomplishments.

Tobias was pleased with her too, but what he said was, “You were always strong.”

Tris didn’t answer that, just looked thoughtful as she started them down the hallway toward the outer doors of the medical facility. More and more, the factions had intermingled, though some fiercely maintained their chosen faction and its culture. Tris visited medical personnel that were Dauntless, but she also came here to what used to be a strictly Erudite facility.

The death serum hadn’t killed her, but the bullets almost had.

Tris paused just inside the doorway and looked at him. She let his hand grip her shoulder gently, let him look his fill of her because it was hard to stand outside the window day after day as she worked day after day, taking every step in pain. She had a serious look in her eyes, but her face was not pained right now.

“Right before this all happened,” she said, “do you know what I was thinking of?”

“Hm?”

Tris got a far-off look in her eyes, like she was imagining it all out now. “I was thinking about what our lives would be like and our future together. What we could do. Being happy.” She looked at him again, really looked at him. “I couldn’t do this without you,” she said, voice very quiet.

He wanted to kiss her, to hold her even tighter with the hand on her shoulder. He didn’t even know how to explain everything her words made him feel.

But Tobias knew how strong she was. “You could.”

She smiled, and he knew she heard what he was really saying.


End file.
